10 Years Later
by OnceUponAnatomyMinds
Summary: When an old friend of Meredith's shows up in the ER after being in a serious car accident 10 years after they last saw each-other, how does she handle this and will he make it out alive? Set during S13.


**Okay so, I have no idea where this idea come from but hey-ho, here it is!**

 **This is set sort of mid-season 13, just before episode 20, I think. I never really thought about the timing in that sense but it is set in season 13 for sure.**

 **Okay so this does have a small character death so warning- but without further adue, here we go!**

 **I hope you enjoy, and don't forget to drop me a review!**

Meredith has just finished a 12-hour surgery and was just about ready to collapse. She had Jo as her intern and after everything had resolved with Alex she had also started to repair her relationship with the brunette. She had to admit, Jo was amazing for Alex and was kind, caring, a good doctor and amazing with her kids- she would be stupid not to become her friend.

"Do you want me to head down to the ER Dr Grey?" She asked, Meredith smiling as she handed the nurse their patients chart.

"Go and have an hour's rest Jo, you deserve it." Nodding gratefully, Jo patted Meredith's arm, heading off.

"You too, thank you Meredith." Watching her walk away, Meredith clicked her neck and headed down to the ER to wait for any incoming traumas. It was her night on call so most of her friends and family were at home. She Bailey was hovering around somewhere but she hadn't seen her since a few hours into her surgery when she was paged away. She sat on an ER bed, swinging her legs around impatiently. She hated slow nights, they were always the worst. No incoming traumas, no emergencies, no surgeries, no nothing. She climbed off and went for a walk, asking the nurse to page her if anything comes up. Wondering the halls aimlessly, she started to think about, well everything. About her kids, about Alex, about Maggie, about Nathan. She knew she had feelings for the man, but was she ready to say them out loud? Would Derek be watching her while she confessed her love for another man? Would he roll over in his grave at the thought of them dating, getting married, having more kids? She was confused. She had never been in this predicament before. I mean yes sure, she had dated while still having feelings for him but he was not dead, he has just chosen his wife over her. That was reasonable, was this the same or totally out of the question. Groaning out loud, she was lost in her thoughts, jumping when Bailey tapped her shoulder, Meredith turning around harshly.

"You scared me." She whispered, though she frowned straight after not quite sure why.

"Why are you whispering?" Bailey replied in the same hushed tone, Meredith looking around with squinted eyes.

"I don't know, why are you whispering." Tutting, Bailey hit her arm, Meredith letting out a small laugh.

"Are you okay Grey, you seem distracted." Bailey asked again after a few seconds. All Meredith could do was roll her eyes,

"Aren't I always." The two were torn away when their pagers went off. _911 to the ER. Car crash victim._ They both shared a look before taking off in the direction of the ER, Meredith grabbing a chart to make up while Bailey suited up and ran to the patient who was wheeled in.

"Male aged 39 had a date with a pole, another car slamming him into it. Luckily there were no head injuries but I cannot say the same about his abdomen. There is severe internal bleeding and we are also making eye contact with his fibula." Meredith noted all this down, shouting to a nurse to page ortho and to get them a CT immediately.

"Patients name?" Bailey asked, the man looking to the chart as he shouted out,

"Finn Dandridge." Bailey jumped around when the chart fell from Meredith's hands, causing a loud bang in the eerily quiet ER. Everyone stared at her in shock as she ran to the patient's side, his eyes wide as he looked over at her.

"Meredith?" With a shocked expression, she nodded, her mouth dry.

"Meredith? You know this man?" She nodded, looking up to Bailey.

"It's Finn!" With a confused expression, the woman shook her head, looking down at the man to try and recall her memory, though he was still stuck on Meredith.

"McVet. I took him to prom!" Recognition filled her eyes as Meredith looked back down at him, a smile on her face.

"I knew I made it to the McFamily." He tried to laugh though it turned into a horrific coughing fit, blood dripping from his mouth.

"His SATs are dropping. We need to get him to CT now." Bailey shouted, starting to wheel him out as Meredith stayed at his side.

"We are going to take good care of you Finn, don't worry." She soothed, stroking his arm as he smiled up at her, though it was filled with pain, unlike the dazzling smiles he used to give her.

"Not still cutting LVAD wires, are we?" He joked, Meredith not being able to hold in the laugh as she shook her head.

"I have grown up a lot since then you know." Rolling his eyes, they waited the painful elevator journey to CT, Meredith's hand shaking as they loaded him in, running around to get the machine going as quickly as possible.

"So, McVet?" Bailey raised her eyebrows at her friend, Meredith slumping down onto the chair next to her.

"You know, we only dated for a few mouths but he was so amazing. I was so corrupted and, I didn't want to damage him you know. And I was so in love with Derek I felt horrible for leading him on. But, he was and is an amazing guy. I just, it's been 10 years since I have seen him- the last time walking out of my hospital room in perfect condition to go and live his life. And now, seeing him like this on a gurney, it's horrible." Her voice was a mere whisper at the end, Bailey nodding her head.

"I can page your intern, you don't want to be in this if you don't want to be." Shaking her head, she sat up as the results started to load, her eagerness the only answer Bailey needed.

"Damnit!" She cursed, banging down on the desk, pushing her chair back as she stood. In a hospital room, they explained to Finn the extent of his injuries, knowing that surgery was a must need for him to see into tomorrow. Jo, who Meredith had paged to assist, passed Meredith the chart, though the woman had already memorised it, not needing to look at it as she sat on the edge of his bed, taking his bruised hand into hers.

"Finn; although the airbag protected your head from any injuries, your internal organs took a bad beating. Your liver is completely crushed and without a new one, you are most likely not going to survive the year- and your spleen is bleeding heavily into your rubs, which will, if we don't control it, reach your heart. Your Fibula is also piercing your skin and you are at substantial risk of an infection, and also losing the leg if we cannot control the bleeding to reconnect the bone. Surgery can help us take control of a lot of the bleeding but we will have to work on multiple things at once and with surgery there is always a risk." With a shaky breath, he nodded and took all the information in, a tear slowly rolling down his cheek.

"So, you're saying with surgery, I might die, and without it, I will definitely die." As painful as it was, Meredith nodded, sighing as he squeezed her hand tightly.

"Okay, so, I guess we are having surgery then?" He laughed slightly, Bailey and Jo slipping out the room to call Maggie. They needed a cardio attending in there and they had a feeling Meredith was in need of someone close to her right now.

"So, you are a good surgeon, right? Not that little shaky intern I was so in love with?" Smacking his arm lightly, she nodded, leaning forward to try and level out her breathing.

"I am a very good surgeon I will have you know, so please, do not go into that OR thinking you are going to die okay? Because we are going to do everything we can to save you." Nodding, Finn kept hold of her hand as they sat in silence, nobody knowing what to say, the beeping of his machine soothing them.

"So, I bet Derek is happy I don't have a brain injury, right?" He joked, though he noticed straight away how her expression turned solemn, tugging at her arm causing her to look up at him.

"He erm- Derek I mean. Derek was in a car accident almost 2 years ago. Truck verses SUV- truck won." He felt his heart shatter on her behalf, knowing exactly how horrible it was to lose someone close to him.

"Oh Meredith, I am so sorry."

"It's okay, I mean, you lost your wife. It's just, I think about him all the time and it hurts." She tried to smile through the tears in her eyes, Finn nodding, knowing exactly what she meant.

"So, I am guessing you two finally tied the knot?" He asked, wanting to make the topic happy, knowing it always helped. She nodded with a laugh, Finn frowning.

"Well, we were supposed to have this big, fancy white wedding, but instead we wrote out vows on a post-it note, right here in the hospital. We later did it officially in town hall, about 2 years later, but, I still have the post-it note, framed up on my wall." Laughing, Finn couldn't help but think it was naturally Meredith. He only knew her for a few months but it was just, her.

"What made you do it 2 years later, I mean, officially?"

"We had to be legally married to adopt." Finn's eyes lit up, Meredith smiling at the thought of her beautiful children.

"You have kids? That is a shock to me." She rolled her eyes, but knew it was 100% true.

"3 beautiful bundles of joy. Zola is the eldest. We adopted her; she if from Africa and was in a program we did to give free surgeries to children from there. She had no family and when we saw her, we just knew she was our daughter. It was love at first sight. Bailey is my second, he was born right here in this hospital. Then Ellis, she is my youngest. I had her in Boston; she was born after Derek died."

"He never met her?" With a sad smile, she shook her head, knowing that one of her biggest regrets in life was Ellis and Derek never meeting. She knew it was not her fault but it still hurt knowing she would never physically know her father.

"I bet she looks just like him." He commented, Meredith nodding with a grin.

"She does! She has his curly hair and his smile." Laughing, the two carried on for the duration of Maggie's journey, the sight of her outside the room with Bailey and Jo notifying Meredith that it was time.

"Okay Finn, we are going to prep you for your surgery okay?" He nodded, Meredith going to leave, his hand still on hers causing her to turn around.

"If I don't make it out of here tonight, I am really glad I got to see you one last time." She shook her head, leaning down to kiss his forehead before dropping his hands.

"You are going to be fine, and this conversation is most certainly not over." With a wave goodbye, Meredith left the room, placing the chart on the nurse's station besides where everyone was standing.

"Are you okay?" Maggie asked, but all Meredith could do was shake her head and walk away, looking down as she headed to the scrub room. The others piled in and everyone scrubbed in silence as Finn was hooked up on the other side of the glass. Everyone noticed how Meredith never seemed to take her eyes off the OR, nobody knowing what to say to comfort her. Once they were all ready, they all approached Finn who was now under and ready to go, Meredith holding out her hand.

"Scalpel." Before Bokhee could hand her the sharp instrument, Bailey interrupted her.

"I want to take charge." She gave Meredith a look saying she wanted no argument, the woman merely nodding as they swapped places and the surgery begun. It was going smoothly; Meredith had controlled the liver bleeding and he was now on Dialysis but Bailey was still struggling with the Spleen, Maggie trying to prevent it corrupting the lungs and heart.

"I just cannot find this bleeder." She groaned out loud, her hand deep inside his body as she dug around, Jo suctioning the blood clots the best she could.

"Jo get your hands in there." Meredith told her, the woman nodding as she dumped the suction and started digging with her hands. All Meredith could do was watch in agony as his SATs slowly dropped and Maggie cracked his chest, the blood filling up around his heart.

"We are losing him!" Someone shouted somewhere, Jo pushing her back as they stood and watched Bailey perform CPR, Maggie massaging his heart, watching his monitor beep uncontrollably.

"Damnit, pass me the paddles! Charge to 200!" She shouted, Bailey holding her hands up as his body was shocked, the flat line echoing around them.

"Charge again to 250!" Again, no motion in his heart, the organ lying still in his open body cavity. This went on for 10 minutes, CPR and shocks being bounced between her sister and close friend before she stood forward, everyone looking at her for direction. With a tear rolling down her cheek, she looked up at the clock and sighed, her voice just above a whisper but somehow, everyone heard.

"Time of death, 1.47am." She ripped off her surgical gown and gloves, heading out of the OR. Everyone solemnly followed, nobody bothering to head in after her as she slammed an on-call room door shut.

"What do we do?" Maggie asked, not knowing her relation to the man, or any details really except for her was an old friend. Bailey held the two back, shaking her head as she turned on her heel.

"We leave her be." In the on-call room, Meredith sat on the edge of an on-call bed, her head buried in her hands as slow tears rolled down her rosy cheeks. She didn't know what was going on in her head; she hadn't seen Finn in 10 years. 10 long years. Why was she so affected by this? She dated him yes, she had feelings for him yes, but she was never in love with him- she never had been. But still, he had shared a few very important moments with her and, despite the long distance in time between visits, he was still important somewhere deep down in her heart. And now he was dead. Actually dead, going to the morgue dead. With a heavy sigh, she lay her head down and fell into a restless sleep. Finn was dead.


End file.
